Moment in Time
by Katchan00
Summary: .FFVI. Just a small glimpse into the past, ten years before the second War of the Magi, as a young girl wanders the Empire's city of Vector and stumbles across a young man that teaches her a new concept.


_In no way, shape or form do I take credit for creation or ownership of the Final Fantasy series. That is the property of Square-Enix._

_I did make the apple lady up though. -K_

* * *

A young girl walked through the streets of Vector, outside of the science facility for the first time in months. Usually, she would never have thought to leave the spacious building where she spent all of her time, but Cid had requested that she go into the city and purchase some apples for him, giving the child some coins and sending her out of the lab. Treating the request much like the orders she received during her training, the little 8-year-old girl had diligently left the facility and entered the city, and was now on her way to locate where exactly she could purchase some apples for her caretaker. She kept her gaze forward, taking in everything around her with calculating observation, her dainty features fixed in a mask of indifference. 

She was still partaking in this search when a young man in his mid-teens came across her, for not the first or second time, but the third time that day, noting her stony expression as she walked past him again. "Hey," he called to the girl, turning and jogging a few steps to catch up to her. "Are you lost?" he asked, looking at her two tiny fisted hands, the knuckles white with tension.

"No," she replied, her tiny high tone layered with ice.

"Are you sure?"

"Quite," she bit out, her clear blue eyes staring him down from her short vantagepoint. Her long blonde tresses had been meticulously brushed and braided and hung behind her, causing her to look almost as if the weight of her hair was pulling her head back as she stared up at him blankly.

"Positive?" the young lad asked, his hands in the pockets of the worn and faded pants that he wore. He knelt in front of her to look at her from equal heights, removing a hand from his pocket only to push his bangs out of the way of his warm brown eyes before returning it. His bangs fell back into place a few seconds later as he was looking at the girl.

"I am positive. I am not lost, I am merely searching for something." He was a bit shocked at how formally the child before him spoke, and how emotionless she appeared to be.

Standing up once more, he offered a hand down to her as he grinned, "Well, maybe I can help you find it? I've been here for a few days, staying with my grandmother, and I've managed to figure out my way through the city pretty well." The girl's piercing blue eyes shifted from his face to his outstretched hand, and back up to his face as she thought about his proposal.

For a few seconds, it looked like she would turn him down and continue on her way, but she surprised him, and perhaps herself too, by opening her tiny hands, shifting the coinage split between them into one small hand, and reaching up to place her thin hand in his. He smiled down at her again and as expected, she merely stared back at him with no expression upon her small features.

"What exactly are you looking for?" he asked the little girl as they began to walk together.

She was quiet for a few seconds as she watched him before turning her cold gaze out in front of them. "I was sent to buy apples."

"Well, I think we can manage to find a produce shop without too much trouble," he replied in his usual happy tone. Glancing down at the young child again, he noticed the small scabbard hanging from her thin belt, and the tiny decorated hilt sticking out from it. Curiosity got the better of him as he tried to make conversation. "So, is that a real sword?" he asked, pointing down at the jeweled handle at her side. The child merely nodded stiffly in response, the tail of her braid bobbing up and down behind her. "Really? Wow." he studied the pale child as they continued to walk through the streets of Vector, still a decent trek away from the food markets. "Why are you wearing a sword around?"

"It's mine," she said quietly, still looking forward.

"Really? Why do you have a sword?"

She lingered silently for a few moments before answering, "Because I am training to become a soldier."

He raised his eyebrow a bit, watching the mechanically graceful way that the girl walked, so unlike a child of her age, and realized that she was telling him the truth. "Well, why are you doing that?"

"Because I was told to do so," she replied automatically.

"Do you always do what you're told?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I was told to do it."

That quieted the young man for a while as he thought about what she had said but as they neared their destination, he thought of more things to ask after watching the solemn girl. "Do you have any friends?"

"What?"

"Friends, do you have any?" he asked again, stopping for a second to look down at her.

"What are friends?" she asked, pausing her steps because he had stopped and looking up at him.

His eyes widened marginally as he heard her question and he squatted down next to her again, his brown eyes looking into the icy orbs fixed upon him. "Well, friends are people that you enjoy being around, people that make you laugh and that you like to talk to. They make you smile for just being themselves, and seeing them brightens your day."

"No."

"Hm?"

"I do not have any friends then," she said passively, her eyes looking deeply into his. She turned and looked down the street they were standing in, her eyes searching for a few seconds before returning her attention to him. Her petite countenance still held the same empty look it had the entire time he had been speaking with her.

"Well, if you want, I'll be a fr-"

"Thank you," she said in her flat tone, cutting him off as she spoke and bobbing her tiny head down in a nod. She retrieved her hand and pointed down the street. "There is the lady selling apples. Thank you for bringing me here." As she finished speaking, she turned and walked primly down the street, her hands hanging at her sides and the tail of her long braid just barely twisting back and forth behind her as she took each step.

The young man watched her for a few seconds, his hands on his hips as he listened to the retreating sound of her small boots clicking against the street with each step that carried her further and further away. He made a small sound somewhere between a snort and a laugh and scratched the back of his head, his fingers messing up his tousled light brown hair even more than it already was. Shrugging his shoulders, he returned his hands to his pockets once more and began the walk to his grandmother's home.

The small girl stood silently in front of the apple merchant's stand for a few seconds until her presence was finally noticed by the humming portly woman that was polishing some of the apples before returning them to the stand in front of her.

"Hello little miss, what can I do for you today?" She folded her arms on the stand and leaned out to talk to the little girl, her face friendly and her eyes shining warmly.

"I was sent by Cid to purchase apples," she replied calmly, reaching up and handing the woman the money from her tiny hand.

"Professor Cid?" The woman asked, looking intently at the girl as she counted the coins she had received. A small polite nod was the only reply she received and she placed the money in her coin box before taking a bag and filling it heartily with apples. "Here," she offered as she came around to the other side of her cart with the long-handled bag. She knelt down and showed the girl how to carry it on her back, leading the straps over her shoulders to where she could hold them in front of her and carry the whole thing like a travel pack. "It's not too heavy, is it?" she asked with concern, making sure that the smile child would be ok.

"No ma'am," she replied in an even tone.

The girl was about to walk away but the older woman stalled her for a few more seconds, "hold on, one more thing." She went around back behind her stall and returned with a stick of the hard candy that she sold and carefully tucked it into the little girl's pocket. "That's for you," she said with another friendly smile as she stood and pointed down the street. "That direction will lead you back to the facility, dear child."

"Thank you ma'am," she said with a small bow of her head before heading back to her home of eight years, a spire of machinery and metals.

Much later in the day, nearing evening, the young girl sat upon a small chair in Cid's laboratory, intently studying the stick that the woman had given her that afternoon while Cid was looking over data that he had collected that afternoon while she had been gone.

"Cid?" she asked quietly after waiting for him to take a break from reading and copying.

"Yes, child?"

"What is this?" She held out the stick to him and he peered at it for a few seconds before chuckling in the deep rumbling fashion that he had.

"Did you get this at the market?" he asked, smiling at the little girl behind his thick mustache.

She nodded, still holding the stick in his direction and looking at him with her emotionless countenance. "The apple lady gave it to me."

"Oh?"

She nodded again. "She said it was mine."

"I'd say that it is then," he replied with more laughter. The child furrowed her brows at him just a little and he patted her head. "It's candy, you eat it. It's sweet."

"Oh." She brought her arm back in, studying the candy stick intently for a few minutes while Cid went back to work before licking it once tentatively. She blinked and stared at it, the flavor unlike anything she had ever eaten before, and then continued to lick at the solidified sugary post. "This tastes strangely, but it is good," she said at length, eliciting more laughter from Cid.

"I'm glad that you like it."

She nodded at him and went back to her treat, silently eating the candy for a long time before speaking again. A long time had passed when she placed the shrinking stick on the table beside her and looked over at Cid, who could feel her gaze after years of becoming accustomed to it and turned to look at her. "Cid?" she asked, her tone solemn as usual.

"Yes?"

"Will you be my friend?" Her small features were serious and drawn, as could be expected, but her response surprised him when he answered.

"Of course, my child, I already am. And you are mine." He smiled sincerely at her, the edges of his eyes crinkling with the action, expecting her to stare at him as usual.

She smiled back.


End file.
